Construction Industry News
A 72-year-old man has been found infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the Gujarat city of Jamnagar, days after arriving in the state from Zimbabwe, a high-risk country, the health department said on Saturday.
This is the third case of Omicron in the country as two individuals in Karnataka were previously found infected with this strain.
Gujarat's health commissioner Jai Prakash Shivhare confirmed that the man has tested positive for the Omicron variant.
The man had arrived in Gujarat from Zimbabwe on Nov. 28 and had tested positive for coronavirus on Dec. 2, after which his sample was sent for genome sequencing, officials said.
Jamnagar Municipal Commissioner Vijaykumar Kharadi had said the sample had been sent to Ahmedabad for genome sequencing to determine if it was infected with the Omicron variant.
The man, from Jamnagar, has lived in Zimbabwe for many years. He arrived in the state to meet his father-in-law. After he developed a fever, his doctor advised him to have an RT-PCR test. The private lab informed civil authorities on Thursday that its report came out positive for COVID-19, he said.
The man was then transferred to the isolation ward of Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital, Kharadi said.
District authorities had already started tracing contacts according to protocols, officials said.
The Omicron strain has been designated as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
A new strain of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. According to the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection came from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.
On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'.
The new Omicron coronavirus variant has been confirmed in 23 countries and their numbers are expected to increase, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
India has also added several countries to the list from which travelers must follow additional measures upon arrival, including post-arrival testing for infection.
According to the Center, the countries identified as "at risk" are European countries, including the UK and South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
